Observations from a short time in the Netherlands

Whenever I travel I find its the small details about life within a country that make it fairly unique and interesting.  Over time these details get forgotten as they become more common place to your life, it takes that fresh outside perspective to see them. Lest I forget too quickly I wanted to get some of them written down because I know its the kind of stuff that is interesting to me at least, so hopefully to you too. One thing to remember about these observations is they are MINE, and therefore relate to MY experience so far, who knows what your experiences could be!

• Cycle paths are generally made from red coloured bricks and slabs. In outlying areas they seem to be separated from roads by parking strips or vegetation. When approaching a roundabout together a car seems to generally always give way to the bike and cyclists seem pretty sure of this, I don't see hesitation on their part. The cyclists all use their bells and hand signals frequently, they don't wear specialized clothing or helmets and for the most part neither do the children it seems. 

• Mopeds, electric bikes and motorized wheel chairs all share the cycle paths, I know this causes some aggravation and I'm sure over time I will form an opinion on the matter, but right now it does seem one good point about this is that traffic is separated based on if you are protected from or by a metal frame, although Mopeds do still have the option of riding on roadways if over a certain CC.

• Grocery shops here seem to be scattered amongst the communities, they are smaller and more compact but still priced competitively. In our experience so far it seems like most neighbourhoods have a grocery shop within walking distance, you might also find a fish monger, bakery, newsagent/post office nearby too. These shops are generally flanked by large amounts of parked bicycles which are locked with a wheel lock rather than a chain as their owners won't be gone for long. The shops carry far less frozen foods than their U.S./U.K. counterparts, have a lot of cheese and I have yet to see a throw away grocery bag in this country, it seems like everyone brings their own bags or purchases the thick plastic or canvas bags that are reusable. 

• The ground seems to be generally free of litter, even in the city centre you don't see a lot of rubbish, except cigarette butts on the ground. I get the sense that the Dutch take a lot of pride in their homes and living spaces. When walking in Amsterdam quite often we've noticed windows to living rooms and bedrooms are ground level and open to the view of passers-by, they all appear to be like shop windows and it's easy to mistake them for a window display until you see someone sitting on the sofa watching TV. 

• Children here seem to have it far nicer than their American/British counterparts, they cycle to daycare (which is subsidized in costs by the government) on a parent's bike, then as they get a little older they may cycle with Mum or Dad to school on their own bike, then as they approach the years of more independence they seem to travel in little packs by bike. Kyle and I enjoy watching them, it's nice to watch the groups of high school age kids being loud and obnoxious like teenagers from all over the world, except they are on bikes!

• Bike shops vary greatly here as to what they cater to, but the majority of them seem to favour everyday bikes and family bikes. You also find non bike stores carry bikey things, like the drug store we found that sold rear mounted kid seats for 30 euro. The things you can buy in the bike shops amaze me, like wheel locks for 10 euros, pannier bags in a variety of colours and sizes, kits to strap your child's buggy to the bike, kits to extend your back rack to allow the use of panniers and a child seat (I know at least 12 parents in the US who will want me to ship them one). The repair shops seem to always have a selection of child bike seats and parts on hand, hanging from the walls. The fancier bike shops can have about 10 varieties of cargo bike to choose from, all waiting for test rides, in fact just yesterday our local bike shop sales man told me to come back and take their Urban Arrow out for a spin!

• I looked at some classified ads and saw half a dozen box bikes and bakfietsen for sale for under 450 Euro, some as low as 300. Really do I need to say anything more on that subject?

• Sometimes I will overhear a conversation between what I assume is two Americans on a train, only to hear them drop their American accent on a word here or there and realize they are actually Dutch. The younger generations especially seem to have amazing clarity with their English language skills, adopting either a British or American accent, it is really impressive.

• One of the things we have to look forward for Jack, is he will automatically qualify for special classes aimed at helping English speaking children settle into the Dutch school system, basically he will qualify for a greatly subsidized daycare that will help him reach native levels of language by the time he starts school, which means he will be bi-lingual from an early age. According to an article I read, based on studies by Unicef and the World Health Organization Dutch children are the happiest in the world. This U.N. study compared children based on scores of how fulfilled they felt at school, how healthy and active they kept, how well they felt they could communicate with their parents and a number of other things. The Dutch tend to be very child focused and I can see how all these elements combined would make for a more trusting, open and enjoyable adolescence for both parents and offspring. To learn more about this subject, simply google "Dutch children are the happiest in the world".  

There are a million more observations I could share but those are the ones that really stand out to me this morning as I sit here at our dining table looking down to the street below, where I can see cyclists of all ages making their way to their destinations, its an amazing place to be right now.

Wednesday morning in the Netherlands

It's been a long few weeks. We left Yatton, near Bristol on Friday the 1st of March by train, which we took to Paddington Station. From there a quick cab ride to another London station called Liverpool St. to avoid the tube- because whilst we may be relatively new to London's mass transit, even we are aware 4 suitcases, a pushchair and a toddler at 5pm on a Friday night are a recipe for disaster. From Liverpool Street Station we took an electric train that veered wildly on the tracks and glowed in an ominous yellow to Harwich International Station, when we left the train we had a wrestle with our suitcases in the first of many tiny lifts that wouldn't hold all of us at once.

London Liverpool Street Station

Within about 40 minutes we were walking up the gangplanks to the huge ferry that was to take us to the Hook of Holland. It was massive, Kyle actually saw it on a show about super boats because apparently it's one of the world's largest ferries of its type, a little more like a cruise ship that just happens to carry a lot of containers.

Jack's first glimpse of the Hollandica

 Nothing had prepared me for how massive this ferry was, we decided to try to stay awake until it was due to leave port at almost midnight, so we went upstairs and ate in a cafeteria style restaurant with the world's best customer service and the worst all rolled into one, then we visited the Curious George Room and some of the lower outside decks to watch containers being loaded.

Jack on a gangplank...are they still called that when they are massive and air conditioned? Letting him ride his bike was a good idea as it made the hike a lot quicker.

 
After the Curious George experience Jack was getting a little tired and Kyle and I were almost comatose, so we skipped the rest of the tour and headed to our room, which turned out to be a very comfortable cabin at the front and centre of the boat. It had two bunks with of crisp white bedding, a T.V. showing obscure subtitled movies and the world's hottest shower in a gleaming chrome filled bathroom. Overall we were pretty impressed as it cost us 51 pounds for the cabin, a required booking when travelling on the night ferry and a very good deal.

As soon as we set off I felt a little deceived by the advise we'd received about the ferry being too big to feel waves...it certainly wasn't! About halfway through what turned out to be a somewhat restless night I got up for a bathroom break and realized it was actually far worse when standing and jumped back in bed quickly, I don't think it was actually that bad, I might just be a wimp.

Our first glimpses of Holland came to us in the morning, an overcast, grey day with an industrial skyline of windmills and billowing chimneys, huge ships with masses of cargo and us, feeling very foreign.  We left the ship, went through immigration, I walked outside with Jack and a few suitcases, and almost immediately a traditional omafiets shot across the empty parking lot.

It was about then that I really realized we had arrived in a foreign country and whilst the natives speak wonderfully clear English, the signs are all in Dutch. Getting a phrase book before departure would have been the normal thing to do, but Kyle and I love making things more difficult for ourselves...plus if we had a phrase book neither of us would know where it was.

Double story trains, sleek and fast. They are to Amtrak what e-mail is to snail mail.

We took a fast train (with tons of room for bikes) into Rotterdam where we changed trains and curved northwards to Hoofddorp, which is what can only be described as a cookie cutter town that could be anywhere in the world if you ignored the presence of bikes- everywhere! I realize now that I have greatly under-appreciated the importance of infrastructure in regards to bicycles. The Dutch cycle for the same reason the  British and the Americans drive cars- it's easy. It's not so much the elevation- because let's face it many areas of other countries are flat but people still don't cycle everywhere. It's the design, the order, the ease of use that makes the Netherlands so easy to cycle, and it's not something that happened over night, the Dutch made a decision to have this lifestyle, and if they can incorporate it into a narrowly built city like Amsterdam, then there is no reason any Brit/Amer. town can't build it in too. It is really a thing of beauty to see empty-ish roads and bustling streets of pedestrians and cyclists, to see mums cycling past with 2 kids and groceries whilst chatting on a cell phone is a thing of awe!

Oh to look that rested on a few hours sleep!

We spent the next week in Hoofddorp, co-housing with another family with a 3 year old, so Jack has been having a great time and making up for the time spent without playdates. Just yesterday we moved to a temporary apartment, where we will stay for about 7 weeks, looking for work and trying to settle in. We're about 30 minutes by train to Amsterdam Centraal, in a town that I have literally only viewed through a plate glass window. I see bike lanes and a bus stop directly below, people busy on their way to work and school, cycling through the snow and wind.

Our apartment is basically perfect, it came furnished with everything from towels and linens, dishes and pans, a guitar and bicycles! To top it off, were getting an amazing deal on rent, it's centrally located and has a fancy glass lift that makes Jack happy. It's inside a renovated church which makes it pretty cool too, I will get a picture later, but until then you can view one here.

We've made a few trips to Amsterdam so far, and have taken a few photos which I will post in the next few days. It is great here, but I do miss my family and find the business of job hunting with only one language quite intimidating in a country where most people speak at least 2 languages and many 3 or 4.

The sun has just blasted though the snow, I have to do an exploratory trip around town and run out some of Jack's energy.

Thanks for reading!